Friday, 15 March 2013

I have long been an admirer of the excellent satirical magazine Punch, and am lucky enough to own a few
Victorian editions which I regularly thumb with mirth and glee, but when it
came to writing a short history of the comical publication I found myself
stuck, at a loss, and unable to do it any real justice.

For a good year or so I’ve been jotting things down, writing post
titles and making notes on what to include in my article about Punch, but always with the same result –
I’ll come back to it later. The sheer
volume of history, writers and illustrators were so vast that I thought it best
left to a book (preferablywritten by someone else) until it struck
me that in my midst on Twitter I had long been following Punch (under the handle @PunchCartoons) and if
I asked nicely enough perhaps they would tell their story for this humble blog.

Luckily, Andre at Punch was only too happy to oblige, and has
provided a fantastic history of the great Punch magazine, thus fulfilling a
glaring gap in the contents of this blog.

Whether you’re a fan of Punch or have never heard of it, please
enjoy reading about the life of London’s
greatest – and funniest – magazine:

Why was Punch magazine 'great'?
Historians, politicians, writers and readers have over the many cascading
decades since it started in 1841 called it legendary, influential, iconic, an
institution. Just flicking through its pages the first thing you notice are the
bold, confident illustrations, 'cartoons'
which brilliantly satirize the political figures of the day and national
symbols fighting it out on the world stage, by which time in the 1840s and 50s,
Britain was the most powerful nation and largest empire in history.

But it is also a joy to open a volume of Punch– a window into
another point in time- and to see how different things were (fashion, political in-correctness, extreme
poverty, London Fog), how some things were surprisingly the same (class pretension, speech, snowball fights)
and how the future was being imagined a hundred years from their own time with
inventions some of which are only just becoming a reality. The writing and
wonderful images are alive – perfect snapshots of the spirit of a Great Britain
long gone. And just like the Curate's Egg cartoon, if it was to begin with at
least, a serious political satirical magazine, then it certainly had many funny
social parts.

The Cartoon, a term which Punch invented as a socially barbed
critique of Parliament's exhibition of preparatory sketches for its own
artworks during a time of social poverty and injustice, were in Punch's early
years drawn by John Leech and suggested by Henry Mayhew. These talents
exemplified Punch's strengths and character: witty social commentary and
lovingly crafted illustrations within a particularly English type of humour.
Leech's 'social cuts' were hugely
popular – spawning separately published collections from Punch – and people
would wait eagerly to see his latest work each week.

But there were many layers to Punch's success, beyond an
enthusiasm and confidence in its pages that reflected a great Age of Empire,
national identity and progress. Now in full swing, the Industrial Revolution's
consumer boom was also accompanied by one in print culture, fuelling demand not
only in china teacups, but books, newspapers and magazines.

The common practice in magazines of the time of 'anonymous' un-credited articles gave
Punch an advantage: its brand association with the European tradition of
Punchinello, and in particular, Mr. Punch. This set it apart from the
competition and gave its articles and cartoons a greater weight, a singular
unified voice transmitted as the musings of Mr. Punch himself. Starting with Henry
Mayhew and Douglas Jerrold's radical writing, then John Tenniel's iconic
imperial cartoons and Shirley Brooks' Toryism, Punch came to be viewed as the
official point of view of the English, at home and around the world.

Of course Punch magazine's strength lay in its contributors,
particularly those of the well paid Punch Table editorial staff like Shirley
Brooks and even editor Mark Lemon, who wrote for other magazines on the
understanding with the owners they would supply only their best work to Punch
in exchange for a generous salary. The Punch Table itself was an exclusive
English gentleman's club where intelligent middle aged men would congregate
every Wednesday evening, tell jokes, share the week's gossip and finally, after
dinner, puff on cigars and discuss the treatment for the next issue's 'Cartoon', often directly based on The Times newspaper's leading headline.
Henry Mayhew's ideas mostly made the 'Big
Cut' political cartoon through his role as 'Suggestive Editor'; a process involving at times heated debate,
all regulated by Mark Lemon's balance and sense of gentlemanly conduct. After
Mayhew left the magazine Shirley Brooks' strength of personality and wit
dominated the table and brought a new Conservative tone to the output.

Shirley Brooks

Another reason for Punch magazine's popularity was being part of a
clear shift away from the gutter press to a more respectful way of doing
things, hence achieving respectability that many rivals couldn't attain, either
through failing – several magazines failed within a few months – or by their
readership being sapped by other satirical papers during a time of mass
consumerism and demand for literature and printed material.

Serialized fiction in magazines was hugely in demand since Charles
Dickens' Pickwick Papers – his new
publishers since 1844, Bradbury and Evans had recently bought Punch in December
1842 from its cash strapped collaborators: journalist Henry Mayhew, engraver Ebenezer
Landells and Mark Lemon – humourist, dramatist, and pub landlord of The
Shakespeare's Head frequented by Dickens, dramatist Douglas Jerrold (dubbed Little Shakespeare due to his vast
knowledge of the bard's works), the Bohemian set and several literary
types. The popularity of 'The Snobs of
England' by William Makepeace Thackeray in 1846 was one of several Punch
in-house series that were later published in book form, as was 'Mrs. Caudle's Curtain Lectures' by
Jerrold (1846) and The Diary of a Nobody by George and
Weedon Grossmith in 1888.

Equally important as individual talent on the magazine was the
bond of friendship at the Punch Table, reciprocated with owners Bradbury and
Evans who attended the weekly meeting. Crucially the owners supported the
editorial staff's decisions. Beyond vocal support, Bradbury and Evans had the
most efficient printing press in Britain which enabled a transition
from individual cottage industry printing to large scale, speedy operations,
accurately incorporating text and illustration in a weekly publication. These
printer-proprietors were an important factor in the success of Punch: as well
as initially taking the plunge investing in a loss making venture and
continuing to protect it with savvy business decisions, they frequently even
lent money to editor Mark Lemon and Shirley Brooks during their personal
financial troubles, all the while supporting their editorial decisions.

One such decision which helped Punch on its way was in accepting
Thomas Hood's Song of the Shirt in December 1843 after having been turned down
by several magazines. The poem had a great impact on the Victorian middle
classes in highlighting the state of the impoverished and exemplifies, together
with such cartoons as ‘Needle Money’
(1849), ‘A Court for King Cholera’ (1852)
and ‘The Stable’ (1861) how Punch championed the cause of
the poor and of improvements to working conditions, sanitation, housing and
education. Punch also raised much money in appeals for charitable causes,
especially during the two World Wars – the high points of its popularity – such
as Mr. Punch's Hospital Comforts Fund, to purchase fabric for soldiers' clothes
in WW2.

A Thackeray Cartoon

William Makepeace Thackeray, on the Punch editorial staff, made a
huge impression on the literary world, first with his 'The Snobs of England'
(1846), popularising the word 'snob' in the English lexicon and
contributing many pieces and some cartoons. After his success with Vanity Fair
(1847) and Pendennis (1848) he became a literary heavyweight
overtaking even Douglas Jerrold. Thus his 'coat
of humour', Punch, had become too small a fit (satirical magazines were considered a lower form of printed media)
and though leaving the magazine he still continued to attend the weekly
editorial dinners. Through Thackeray's fame and association with Dickens – by
being contrasted to him, in having the same publishers, and being members of
the literary epicentre The Garrick Club – the Punch staff were in great company
and in that close-knit Victorian literary world this brought respect to the
magazine. Dickens had already been friends with Douglas Jerrold; and Mark
Lemon, John Leech, and Shirley Brooks were all close friends of Dickens from
1847 – his son Charlie Dickens married Thackeray's daughter and contributed to
Punch.

In the 1860s and 70s the great George du Maurier and Edward Linley
Sambourne came onto the staff and cemented Punch's already legendary status,
both adding to the visual recognition of the magazine: du Maurier's highly
detailed society cartoons of perfectly observed Victorian middle class
pretensions, modes and art movements and in Sambourne's cartoons of fashion,
the female form and politics in a new graphic style.

du Maurier Cartoon on 'beautymania'

The big four cartoonists of the Victorian era: Leech, Tenniel, du
Maurier and Sambourne were replicated in the Twentieth Century by Bernard
Partridge, Leonard Raven Hill, Leslie Illingworth and E.H. Shepard, and
supplemented by the splendid works of George Morrow, Charles Harrison, Lewis
Baumer, J.H. Dowd, Frank Reynolds, George Belcher, Pont...the list goes on –
the best standards of cartooning and illustration seen anywhere.

From Partridge's epic World War 1 propaganda to Sherriff's film
stars, to 'The British Character' by
Pont, the world which 'browsed' Punch
was given a real treat every week over the course of a hundred and fifty years
to the best of British by Britain's
best. Many of the writers and cartoonists gracing its pages were legends in
their own right, having acclaim and several successes outside the magazine, but
these special ingredients all came to be distilled together for each issue of
Punch. In looking at the latest news, fashions, technology, films, books and
social preoccupations, it has become a treasure trove of English culture.

Without doubt it was the framework of that talent, high editorial
standards, networking and support, good fortune, balance and timing from the
outset which gave Punch its stature and ensured that it was envied, copied,
parodied, feared and respected in equal measure. Just as all the best cartoonists
wanted to have their work printed in Punch, so too all the politicians would
have discovered their political culture, history and eventual public perception
– as the young Winston Churchill did – from its pages. The politicians may have
cringed at their caricatured depictions, but they would have relished it all
the same.

By being a mirror to English society, repeating and commenting on
what its writers and cartoonists saw, heard and experienced in the news and
fresh gossip at ground level, by urging social change and trumpeting its own
national cause, it became a beacon for the British Empire and stands as a
unique monument in British and world history. If, (from the Punch sub-title) Charivari means a loud mocking clamour of
noise, then Punch certainly made everyone sit up and notice.

Punch Facts

·Charles Dickens, Garibaldi and Mark Twain all dined at the Punch
Table.

·The CrystalPalace was given its name
by Punch, in 1851, for the Great Exhibition.

·Punch was responsible for starting the Scottish stereotype of
frugality with the 'Bang went saxpence!!!'
cartoon by Charles Keene.

The Charles Keene 'Bang Went Saxpence' Cartoon

·Winston Churchill – In his 'Thoughts
and Adventures' (1932), Churchill
dedicates a chapter to Cartoons and Cartoonists, stating that he learnt history
from the few volumes of Punch at school in the 1880s, and that they serve as 'food for grown-up children'. He refers
to several Punch classics such as Dropping
the Pilot (1890), The British Lion's Vengeance on the Bengal
Tiger (1857) and Britannia Sympathises with Columbia (1865). Punch would later offend
Churchill in 1954 under the editorship of Malcolm Muggeridge with a cartoon by
Leslie Illingworth showing a frail Prime Minister above the caption "Man goeth forth unto his work".

·Kaiser Wilhelm II – Punch and the Kaiser had a long relationship;
unsurprisingly Queen Victoria's
grandson was often offended. An avid reader of Punch he tried to understand the
English and impress them, with ever decreasing results. While banning Punch
from his palaces and his yacht for a few months, he wrote to Queen Victoria and
asked her to stop its production, unsuccessfully, after The Modern Alexander's Feast (1892)
by Tenniel to which Sambourne followed up with Wilful Wilhelm a few issues later, showing him in a tantrum with
broken framed Punch cartoon Dropping the
Pilot, a knocked over globe of the world and holding up issues of Punch in
outrage. Wilhelm would admit during WWI that Punch magazine's propaganda
cartoons were having a de-moralising effect on the German nation.

·Felix Mendelssohn – Punch reviewed Mendelsohhn's 'Antigone' at Covent
Garden in January 1845 to which he wrote to his sister: "See if you cannot find Punch for Jan. 18. It
contains an account of Antigone at Covent Garden,
with illustrations, - especially a view of the Chorus which has made me laugh
for three days."

·Adolph Menzel – German artist Menzel subscribed to Punch weekly
just to see the latest Charles Keene social cartoon. Keene
was highly revered internationally and being an admirer of Menzel is regarded
as bringing in a modern, German style of illustration to Britain. Menzel
"collected great piles of the
magazine".

·HRH Prince Charles, the Duke of Edinburgh and Princess Margaret
were all invited and carved their initials on the Punch Table; Princess Anne
also wrote an article for Punch.

·Margaret Thatcher attended the Punch Table in 1975.

·Mark Twain – When the novelist came to visit and was invited to
carve his initials onto the Punch Table he kindly refused, saying that two of
the three initials carved by William Makepeace Thackeray would suffice.

MARK TWAIN HUMOR APPROVED BY PUNCH.

A Big Cartoon Dedicated to Him and the Staff Will Dine Him.

GUEST OF THE PILGRIMS. Notable Luncheon Given, to Which 1,000
Notable Vainly Ask to be Bidden.

Special Cablegram. Copyright, 1907, by THE NEW YORK TIMES CO.

LONDON, June 25. - Mark Twain
will go back to America
duly certificated [sic] as a
humorist. Punch, which regards Americans generally as lacking in the sense of
humor, does not consider Mark Twain deficient in that respect. He is one of
their own kind. The Punch people think, and they are kittening to him with
their whole hearts. They exhibit their feeling for him in a full page cartoon
in today's issue, which is dedicated to him. Mark Twain appears seated at a
table, on which stands a big steaming punch bowl. Mr. Punch, who is placed in
the foreground, drinks to Mark Twain's health, the toast being:

"Sir, I honour myself
by drinking to your health. Long life to you and happiness and perpetual youth."

Mark Twain expects to have a grand time at a dinner which The
Punch people will give to him. They asked him which he would rather do, "Go to a hotel and have something decent to
eat," or dine at the famous Long Table in Punch's office. He voted
unanimously for the Long Table."

- The New York Times, June 26, 1907.

Some Notable
Contributors

Kingsley Amis,

Joan Bakewell,

Sir John Betjamin,

Maeve Binchy,

Basil Boothroyd,

Malcolm Bradbury,

Melvyn Bragg,

Fenton Bresler,

Alan Brien,

Alan Coren,

Paul Dehn,

E.M Delafield,

Peter Dickinson,

Margaret Drabble,

Mary Dunn,

H.F. Ellis,

Michael Frayn,

Clement Freud,

David Frost,

Virginia Graham,

Robert Graves,

Benny Green,

Joyce Grenfell,

Alan Hackney,

Roy Hattersley,

A.P. Herbert,

Quintin Hogg,

Richard Hoggart,

P.M. Hubbard,

Barry Humphreys,

Clive James,

Anthony Jay,

Ludovic Kennedy,

Eric Keown,

Miles Kington,

E.V. Knox,

C.S. Lewis,

R.P. Lister,

Humphrey Lyttleton,

Joy Melville,

A.A. Milne,

Angela Milne,

Richard Mallett,

Kingsley Martin,

Robert Morley,

Sheridan Morley,

Malcolm Muggeridge,

Frank Muir,

Michael Parkinson,

J.B. Priestly,

Libby Purves,

Stanley Reynolds,

Jonathan Sale,

Harry Seacombe,

R.C. Scriven,

Ned Sherrin,

Muriel Spark,

James Thurber,

Hugh Trevor-Roper,

E.S. Turner,

Keith Waterhouse,

Hugh Weldon,

Geoffrey Willans (Molesworth),

P.G. Wodehouse (Our Man in America),

Woodrow Wyatt,

D.B. Wyndham Lewis,

B.A Young.

Burnand

Francis Burnand (F.C. Burnand) – Dramatist, humourist, writer of burlesques and Punch
Editor from 1880. Wrote more than 200 works outside of Punch; one of the most
prolific dramatic writers of his time. His play "The Colonel" was the first royal command performance attended
by Queen Victoria
in twenty years, was hugely successful and based on Punch regular cartoonist
George du Maurier's series featuring "the
Colonel" character. Started writing for Punch in 1863. The
Colonel-type character remained popular in Punch and could be argued as a main
influence for cartoonist David Low's Colonel Blimp in the 1930s.

Tom Taylor – Playwright of 'Our American Cousin' which was the
wildly successful play on both sides of the Atlantic
from 1858 until the end of the Victorian era and was attended by President
Abraham Lincoln at his assassination in 1865. Tom Taylor later became Punch
Editor in 1874.

A.A. Milne – When We Were Very
Young, first published in Punch, introduced Winnie the Pooh, or Edward Bear as
he was then known in 1924.

Eric Keown – His 'Sir Tristram Goes West' first appeared
for Punch in 1932 and was made into a highly successful Hollywood
film 'The Ghost Goes West' (1936) starring Robert Donat and Elsa
Lanchester.

A.P. Herbert – A trained barrister,
M.P., novelist, law reformer and thoroughly clever chap who, through his
humorous 'Misleading Cases' series in
Punch highlighted the archaic laws and judgements of English jurisprudence and
managed through a private members bill to reform divorce in his Matrimonial
Causes Act (1937), making it possible
to divorce for the first time without proof of adultery. His 'Cases' were made into three BBC series
in the late 1960s.

Major John McCrae – 'In Flanders Fields' was first published in Punch in 1915 and
composed at the 2nd Battle of Ypres after McCrae's friend Lieutenant Alexis
Helmer was killed and McCrae, a Brigade Doctor, had to conduct the burial
service.

Patrick Barrington – Famous around the
world for his 'I had a hippopotamus'
as well as the 'Songs of a Sub-Man'
poems in the 1930s.

Miles Kington – A broadcaster,
journalist, humourist and jazz musician. Together with Alan Coren the mainstay
of Punch's written work from the 1960s, to the 80s and laugh-out-loud funny
such as Kington's 'Let's Parler Francais'
series.

Arthur Reginald Buller – 'There was a young lady named Bright / Who could travel far faster than
light / She set off one day / In a relative way / And returned on the previous
night.' His famous limerick first appeared in Punch in 1923.

Harold Frank Hoare – Known as "Acanthus"
when cartoonist for Punch, as an architect won the competition to design
the first Gatwick terminal in 1935 at the age of 25, a circular design dubbed
"The Beehive" which still
exists. Many of his cartoons include architectural themes such as stately homes
and new modern buildings but he was an excellent documenter of the Home Front
during WW2.

John Michael Ward Bingham, 7th Baron Clanmorris – Wrote some articles and verse for Punch in the
1930s and 40s and was a thriller writer. However, he was also employed by MI5
in the counter-intelligence section, "M",
and was the model for John le Carre's leading man George Smiley. Michael Jago's
new biography "The Man Who Was
George Smiley - The Life of John Bingham" illuminates his secret life
as spy during WW2 and the Cold War and his influence on le Carre.
Punch readers would not have known his humourous short story "Telephone Conversation, 1943" was
based on his actual work.

Celebrity Guest writers

Dave Brubeck,

Noel Coward,

David Dimbleby,

Graham Greene,

Sir Hugh Greene,

Edward Heath,

Julian Huxley,

Terry Jones,

Joanna Lumley,

Paul McCartney (interviewed
in Nov 1966 and contributed a piece in 1973),

Yehudi Menuhin,

Spike Milligan,

Michael Palin, J

ohn Steinbeck,

Auberon Waugh.

Artists

Tenniel

John Tenniel – Illustrator of 'Alice
in Wonderland' and 'Through The
Looking Glass'. Lewis Carroll specifically chose Tenniel because of his
allegorical, grown-up fantasy 'Big Cut'
political cartoons from Punch – another layer of meaning to his readers already
familiar with Tenniel through Punch.

Bernard Partidge – A worthy successor to
Tenniel as the chief cartoonist, the political protagonists in his Big Cuts
were theatrical send-ups brilliantly observed, but always focussed on the real
message with a bold urgency. If in Tenniel's cartoons the message could be
obscured by the fine detail, Partridge brought it to the fore with at times
startling effect, and his work is one of the best examples of British
propaganda in media.

Fougasse – Kenneth Bird
discovered the name Fougasse while on active service in WWI (a landmine) and used it to
differentiate between W. Bird (Jack
Butler Yeates). Famous for government posters such as 'Careless Talk Costs Lives'.

David Langdon – Popular during WW2
for his public information posters 'Billy
Brown of LondonTown'. Contributed to Punch for over
60 years.

George Adamson – Illustrator of Ted
Hughes' books and winner of the P.G. Wodehouse Centenary Illustration Award, he
drew hundreds of cartoons and many front covers over 50 years from 1939.

Norman Thelwell – Many published book
collections including 'Angels on
Horseback' and specialising in cartoons of girls on ponies and the
countryside.

Trog (Wally Fawkes) – A renowned jazz musician and collaborator with
Humphrey Lyttleton's band he drew beautifully realised, almost photorealistic
colour caricatures of celebrities and politicians as well as front covers,
which took over from the Big Cut political cartoon, in the 1970s.

Rowland Emett – Inventor of kinetic
sculptures and designer for the machines in film 'Chitty Chitty Bang Bang'. His Punch 'Far Tottering' railway cartoons came to life at the Festival of
Britain and at The Globe stage production 'Between
The Lines' in 1951.

Alfred Bestall – Creator of Rupert the
Bear and many great social cartoons in Punch. Drew the prototype for Winnie the
Pooh in Punch for A.A. Milne before he decided on E.H. Shepard's version.

Caran d'Ache (Emmanuel Poire) – The pioneer of the first ever comic strip
cartoons which later inspired Bateman and Fougasse, he drew one or two cartoons
for Punch in the 1890s.

H.M. Bateman – Master of the strip
cartoon that with bold and rounded line work brought his characters to life.
Brilliant series of 'The Man Who' along
with hundreds of laugh out loud sporting and leisure cartoons.

Linley Sambourne – Great graphic
cartoonist influenced by photography and a pioneering street photographer, or 'street blogger' of un-posed Edwardian
women and their fashion with the use of a special periscope. Drew the political
Big Cuts following John Tenniel's reign as Chief Cartoonist.

Leslie Illingworth – One of the best
cartoonists and illustrators of the 20th century, with some truly epic
backdrops for the Punch Big Cuts and savagely biting satire during WW2 and into
the 1950s. Although ultimately an editorial decision by Malcolm Muggeridge, it
was his 1954 cartoon that offended Winston Churchill, showing him at his desk
with drooping mouth and fat hands.

Harry Rountree – A fine illustrator of
children's books by Enid Blyton, and H.G. Wells. Also illustrated an edition of
Alice in
Wonderland and Aesop's Fables.

Arthur Rackham – One of the greatest fairytale illustrators of all time, his richly
detailed cartoons for Punch convey his skills brilliantly. He illustrated
editions of Aesop's Fables, Alice's
Adventures in Wonderland, Gulliver's Travels, Peer Gynt by Ibsen, The Valkyrie
by Wagner, Fairy Tales by Hans Christian Anderson, and The Wind In The Willows
by Kenneth Grahame.

Ralph Steadman – Won several awards
for illustration and worked with Ted Hughes, Hunter S. Thompson and Will Self.
Produced some very interesting colour cartoons and front covers for Punch in
the 1960s.

Gerald Scarfe – Influenced by Ronald
Searle, Scarfe illustrated for Punch in the 1960s and went on to work with Pink
Floyd for their 'The Wall' album,
film and tour as well as the 'Yes
Minister' TV series.

Ronald Searle

Ronald Searle – Possibly the greatest
and most celebrated cartoonist of the 20th century, creator of 'St Trinians' and collaborator with
Geoffrey Willans for the Molesworth series of books. Drew some truly
magnificent illustrations and cartoons for Punch such as the double spreads 'Heroes of Our Time' (1956-1957) featuring Sir Malcolm
Sargent, Laurence Olivier and Vivian Leigh, Bertrand Russell, Princess Margaret
etc and the savagely funny 'How To Kill A
Man In Six Efforts'.

Andre Francois (Andre Farkas)
– A unique talent and a painterly cartoonist he produced some of the best
looking colour work and front covers for Punch, and designed theatre sets for
Gene Kelly and Peter Hall.

Michael ffolkes – (Brian Davis). Wonderfully funny modern burlesque cartoons of naked
ladies running about and surreal situations covering art, literature, business,
leisure, the aristocracy and film reviews. A cartoon legend who contributed to
Punch for five decades, from the 1940s until his death in 1988 and whose work
is always fresh with the youthful vigour of life.

Mike Williams – A modern master of
the cartoon with lovely line work including colour washes and off-kilter
humour. His work is among the best examples of cartooning in Punch from the
1970s and 1980s.

Anne Harriet Fish - Very popular female
cartoonist from 1920s, working for Vanity Fair and Vogue magazines and
illustrating adverts. Her illustrations for the 'Eve' series of books were
turned into silent films and her drawings about the middle classes in the 1920s
are a good pre-cursor to Pont's British Character series of the 1930s. She was
not the only female artist in Punch and not the earliest: Georgina Bowers was
an excellent cartoonist from the 1860s and 1870s, and we find other great
contributors continuing into the 20th century such as Antonia Yeoman (Anton),
Sally Artz and Riana Duncan.

Famous guests
interviewed in 'Passing Through':

Roger Moore,

Sean Connery,

Michael Cain,

Zsa Zsa Gaboor,

Mel Brooks,

Alice Cooper,

Gore Vidal,

George Cukor,

Shirley Maclaine,

Sidney Sheldon,

Lee Marvin,

Margot Fonteyn,

Marcel Marceau,

Henry Fonda,

Richard Harris,

Richard Chamberlain,

Ella Fitzgerald,

Charles Aznavour,

Telly Savalas,

Susannah York,

James Mason,

Billy Wilder,

Henry Mancini,

Arthur Ashe,

Dirk Bogarde,

Rod Steiger,

Victor Borge,

Michael York,

Jacqueline Bisset,

Jackie Collins,

Patricia Highsmith,

Ingrid Bergman,

John Wayne,

Liberace,

Engelbert Humperdinck,

Roy Orbison,

Jackie Stewart,

Robert Shaw,

Tony Curtis,

Jack Lemmon,

Tony Bennett,

Otto Preminger,

Graham Sutherland,

Joe Louis, T

hor Heyerdahl,

Eartha Kitt,

Sir Oswald Mosley,

Gracie Fields,

Luciano Pavarotti,

Robert Graves,

Alfred Hitchcock,

Frank Zappa,

George Best,

Bing Crosby,

David Attenborough,

Arthur C. Clarke,

Carl Sagan,

Christiaan Barnard,

John Mortimer,

Malcolm Muggeridge,

Frederick Forsyth,

Joseph Heller,

Norman Mailer,

John Updike,

Dave Allen,

Sophia Loren,

Andy Warhol,

Spike Milligan,

Charles Bronson,

Dustin Hoffman,

Herbert Lom,

Peter Ustinov,

Richard Branson,

Mikhail Gorbachev.

Andre Gailani,

Punch Limited

References

·Thanks in the main to the excellent book 'The Punch Brotherhood' by Patrick Leary. The British Library (2010).

·Thanks to http://publishing.monash.edu
for quoting 'Drawing the Line - Using
Cartoons as Historical Evidence' Edited by Richard Scully and Marian
Quartly (2009)

·Thanks also to http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper
quoting 'Sophocles: The Plays and
Fragments', with critical notes, commentary, and translation in English
prose. Part III: The Antigone. Sir Richard C. Jebb. Cambridge. CambridgeUniversity
Press. 1900.

My huge
thanks once again to Andre of Punch (www.punch.co.uk)
for the brilliant article above.

Lastly,
if I may urge you all to go forth into your local antique bookshop or eBay and
seek out an old edition of Punch I know it will be worth your while! For quite
little money you can pick up a century-old piece of work full of great humour
and magnificent drawings!

Makemylove.com, India's leading matrimonial portal site strive hard to provide you the perfect match with a touch of tradition from a wide array of community, caste, city and much more for the global Indian community you can find your life partner with help of makemylovematrimonials sites indiaCanada Matrimonial

Introducing Your Humble Host...

Being unable to go back to Victorian England, I have to settle for the next best thing - seeing things that were there, reading about the people who lived in that time, visiting the places they built for us, studying the events they witnessed and writing about them. I enjoy all things Victorian, Cycling and walking with "Miss Amateur Casual"
Hopefully, this blog can bring a bit of the nineteenth century to the modern age.